George Mraz Recordings?

Well there's a ton out there by George.Have you looked at his profile on AMG? He is well recorded 100's of sessions.I guess you would have to decide what kind of setting you like....Trio,big band vocals ,insrumental,etc. He has done it all.
You could start w. Tommy Flanagan,he played with him for 20+ years.

 

George's solo recordings have always been great to listen to, in addition to the Tommy Flanagan stuff. His solo albums, especially Bottom Lines and Duke's Place, have incredibly inventive arrangements and musicianship, as well as, to my ears, a better bass tone than his work with Carmen. (Haven't gotten into Morava yet, listened to it once, but I haven't really been able to devote much attention to it) I get the impression, listening to the Carmen Sings Monk album, that the producers really leaned heavily on the direct bass sound, whereas most of his other recordings feature a nice, open, woody tone.

George is a killer player though, definitely underappreciated, so you'll have a lot of great stuff to get into. Enjoy!

 

His recent work with Hank Jones and Joe Lovano was great. I've only heard live stuff on the radio but they put an album out too.

 

I picked up "Duke's Place" yesterday, and it's a really tasty CD - very nice arrangements and performances of some Ellington favourites.

One thing I'm surprised at is that George is fairly back in the mix; considering it's "The George Mraz Trios" I'd expected to hear him dominating the band. Clearly his exquisite taste extends past his playing and allows him to leave his ego at the door in deference to the music.

This is the first CD of his I've bought, and I'll be looking for more of his stuff while I'm browsing at Amoeba in the future.

 

George Mraz is probably the first great jazz upright player I heard live. It was a small basement club in DC. My jaw still drops when I think about it. No amp with a piano and drums and you could hear every note. Fabulous technique and ideas. I had been hip from his recordings with Thad and Mel and kind of knew what I was in for, but it was much better than I could have anticipated.

Ike